ETHNOMUSICOLOGY :

MUG306
(JAMAICAN SKA MUSIC)
MADAM ALIA FARAHIN

PREPARED BY: NIGEL PRUDENT

2012522897

Jamaica is a country with the estimate population 2,889,187 on July 2012. It is an Island
country located in the Caribbean Sea and one of the largest island of the Greater Antiles. It is
approximately 11, 000 wide (in kilometres) in the area that is nearly 150 kilometres of south
Cuba and approximately 200 kilometres of the west Hispaniola. The capital and the largest city
in Jamaica is Kingston that contains the nation states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. For
the official language is English. Jamaica is one of the largest island country in the Caribbean.
The country is widely known for their steady, skanking and upbeat music such as reggae, mento,
ska, ragga.
Ska music is a musical combination of Caribbean Mento and Calypso with a little mix of
American Jazzz and also Rhythms and Bluesy Jazz. This musical style was originated in Jamaica
in the 50s. It was due before the coming of Rocksteady and Reggae. It is characterized by a
walking bass line that is stressed or dynamically accented with rhythms played on upbeat. It was
the most popular and central music genre of Jamaica in the early 60s and was later expanding to
other communities including the British Community that was later evolve into the Punk Rock
and Skinhead era. The development of Ska music genre in Jamaica in the 60s was precursor by
Prince Buster, Clement Coxsone Dodd, and Duke Reid when they formed a sound
arrangements to fuse with American rhythm and blues. Then they began to record their tracks.
Ska music was typically made for dancing. It is because of the steady upbeat on the
music that is quick and exciting. On musical form, it can be described with a beat that lies on 2 nd
and 4th beats (in 4/4 time) with the snare playing the side stick accenting the third beat of each
triplet while the guitar strums the 2 nd, 3rd and 4th beats. The style was of bars made up of four
triplets, that is alike to a song like My Baby Just Cares for Me by Nina Simone. The guitar
strumming known as an upstroke strum in offbeat (skanking) and horns playing the lead melody
while the piano highlighting the bass line. The upstroke or skanking sound is also featured
characteristic in other Caribbean forms such as mento and calypso. Mainly, a Ska band consists
of instruments such as drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, and commonly horns with sax, trombone
and trumpet.
There are three distinct waves of the history and development of Ska. The original first
was the Jamaican scene in the 60s which is the first wave of the Ska music genre. It was in the
50s just as Jamaica gained independence from Britain. The musical style was prejudiced by

American Jazz and R&B which popular on radios in the country. It has been broadcasts by the
U.S Army on the radio nearby during in the war that is envisioned for American Soldiers. Some
of the original Ska artist including Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The
Skatalites, The Melodians, Toots and the Maytals, and Byron Lee & the Dragonaires. Many of
the bands are right commonly associated with Reggaeas that developed and achieved worldwide
fame with their Ska and Reggae songs.
The 2nd wave of the history of Ska is the English 2 tone Ska revival that was formed in
the late 70s. It is a fusion of Jamaican ska rhythms and melodies but with much quicker measures
and an evolvement of punk-ock with some harder edge of it. The music genre is created in the
United Kingdom. It was called 2 Tone because of the recording studio namely 2 Tone Records
that were signing up many bands from that era. It is the precursor of the third wave of the ska
scene of the 90s.
The 3rd wave includes bands from many countries such as UK, Australia, Japan, U.S,
South America and other European countries including Germany. It started on the late 80s from
the precursor from the 2nd wave of Ska history. It began to peak in the 90s. This is the revival or
evolvement of Punk music including Skinheads. It inspired from the punk rock music for
bringing up the brass instruments as the lead melodies with the accompaniment of heavilyaccented offbeat drum and bass much likely reggae with much quicker tempo. Though the R&B
styles are in much slower tempo. Many of the hardcore punk, core-ska are playing this
characteristic but several Ska bands were into the influence of the traditional 60s style. Bands
such as Sublime, Reel Big Fish and including MAGIC! From the 2010s band is influenced with
the 3rd wave genre.
The three periods of Ska history movement are more likely evolves in many areas and
country from the originated Jamaican Ska. The musical style contributes to the music industry
bigly then it began to popularize when it drastically evolve and fusing into many musical style
from the bands of Jamaica that started the genre Reggae and steadyrock. It clearly played a vital
part in the progress of punk-rock and post-punk.
Some of the Jamaican artist that contributes to Ska music genre are Desmond Dekker,
Prince Buster, Toots, The Maytals, The Skatalities and Derrick Morgan.